Islam and the 21st Century

I have been talking via emails with a conservative blogger:

I have enjoyed the discussion via quoted articles and emails re: the Islamic religion. You stated, “No view of religion is ever gone for ever. Islam may not be promising material for modernity; but I'm not prepared to give up on its eventual reconciliation with liberal democracy.”

How I would like if just wishing could make it so. Sadly, all the evidence indicates that Islam remains a paternal religion that flatly states they are the one true religion. While that’s not unlike most religions, the Islamic faith backs it up with these quotes from The Koran:


"Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate." (Sura 9:73)

"Those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil. So fight ye against the friends of Satan." (Sura 4:76)

"Fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)." (Sura 9:5)

You simply won’t find a call to hurt those who don’t believe in the Bible anywhere in either the new or Old Testament. I’ve have read Islamic scholars who make the point that later verses abrogate these calls to action. If that were truly so, why do we see such a consistently high level of violence in the name of Islam? Obviously, the teaching to hurt/kill those who do not believe/convert to Islam holds great sway to today.

In any case, I don’t have much confidence that Islam will reconcile with 21st century cultural values any time soon.



I see conservatives working hard to make Islam a "peaceful religion". It's not. I wish that it was, but the sooner we come to accept that those who practice Islam would as soon kill us as look at us if we don't accept Allahah and Islam, the sooner we develop a foreign policy rooted in reality.